Joyful Color in the Gloom

In this time of grey skies and dreary days, our red Witch hazel in the front flowerbed always stands out. Each year it is the first plant to "bloom" adding a wonderful pop of red to the otherwise brown and green world.

The Garlic in January

I last lifted off the remay hoop and checked on my garlic three weeks ago. We had just come out of our record cold spell and snowfall and some of  the garlic was still sprouting.

I am pleased to report that three weeks later all of the garlic is up and growing well. The "Chesnook Red" garlic came up first this year. This is my third year growing this variety so I now understand its unique growing habit. Per usual, the young plants are growing horizontally more than they are vertically. This will continue until April or May when they will suddenly straighten and grow straight upwards. But all 15 young plants look good.

The rest of the row is planted with 12 "Russian Red" garlic cloves. These plants were much later to push above the soil line this year than the "Chesnook Red" but they are catching up in size quickly. The final two cloves are just now pushing a green shoot through the soil but the rest of the young plants are a good 2" tall. This is my second year growing this variety that I brought back from Maine in the Fall of 2012.

Fogged In

Happy New Year. I had hoped that today would be a productive day. There is still so much to do outside. Flower beds still need to be cleaned up from last year and fields need to be mowed. But our foggy weather returned with a vengeance today and all energy and motivation for outside work disappeared like the sun. So, the first day of the New Year will be a day of rest. There is still 364 more days left to get something accomplished!